snip

El looked at the comms, her fingers moving independently. Was there nobody about who was briefing each other?! She frowned. The alarm went to Red Alert. Things were going to be getting real busy real quick. She spoke louder to speak over the claxons as she slapped the comms and talked over the alarm.

[o] Working on it! [c] She may have sounded snappy there. El paused and took a breath. [c] Captain, that ship is sending out a subspace wave almost like a comms signal that is opening and burrowing into subspace. We’ve got about 3 minutes before it hits a size that might be … bad. [c] Well that sounded dramatic and totally without evidence. [o] It is pushing out a lot of power via those lights to do this. I’m trying to create a counter wave to nullify theirs. [c] More people were coming into Engineering. El risked a glance. At the head was Reginald Hewitt Davos Green, Lt, and just under the Chief. His typically immaculate hair was not. [o] To do this we need to flicker the warp bubble and focus the energy through the warp nacelles – more or less a match of what that ship was built to do but what we’re improvising. It is risky ..

At that point Reginald’s voice could be heard, a clipped British baritone, “Are you crazy!? You’ll kill us all! The ship is not designed to do that. Do not initiate that, Ensign!” [c] El closed the comms with a slap.

“That was the Captain!” she snapped.
“And you should have said that you were awaiting collaboration!”
“No time,” she said, turning to the screen to work to finish her calculations, stabbing at the screen.
[o] El, Rosa here. We are still at position. Should we come back? [c]
[o] No, I need you both there to monitor power flow through the nacelles. [c]
El’s hand reached back when it was grasped at the wrist by Green. “Listen, stand down. Whatever it is out there can’t be a risk to us and you are risking our lives. I’ll take it from here.”
“No, what is out there is not going to be good for us or the planet if it opens.”
“What proof do you have?” El paused. “There, you don’t even know! Move!”
El wrenched her hand out from his grasp. Reginald leaned in, whether over balanced or not and tried to reclaim his hold to pull El out of the chair. Reacting to his proximity El put out her arm and took hold of his tunic. Both off balance each swung in the swiveling chair, the momentum carrying Reginald forward and across El’s path and falling with an awkward smack to the deck. El looked, wide eyed, and whispered a curse in Cantonese.

El, Eng

El stared in shock and the bridge went quiet but for the claxons. Reggie shifted and moaned which was a relief to El, but not much of one.

Another accented voice came up. “Quit gawking like rubbernecking shoreman. You two, help the Lt up and take him to sickbay. The rest of you man stations. Move!” El turned her gaze over to the speaker. It was Senior Chief Petty Officer Bekele Seifu. Broad. Bald and dark skinned and now focused on El.
“Thanks Chief,” El said, cursing inwardly her own pause in action. Then a call came from the bridge cutting through her thoughts.

[O] Engineering .. We’re gonna try a couple things up here first. But I’m case they don’t work, I want a more definitive answer than ‘it may work out it may blow us up’. [O] There was an edge of a nervous laugh to her words. [O] Stand by and we’ll let you know how this works. Bridge out. [C]

A finger pressed the comms. [o] Bridge. Seifu here. Engineering is standing by. [c] He closed the channel then leaned in closer to El. Next to him El felt quite small. Seifu had a lot of experience and she felt her own lack of it.

“Now, Ensign. I saw what happened. The Lt overstepped but you reacted poorly too. You should not have spoken back as you did. But this is done and will be discussed later.” He looked at the mathematical programming on the screen with a flashing option to ‘initiate’ and shook his head. “That is not my skill set. Explain to me what you are trying to do.”

“There is a ship out there we believe is of alien origin that is one big power plant. It is pumping out power in a wave pattern that is burrowing into subspace. Computer modeling showed that if it reaches 25 inches wide then whatever is going to happen will happen. I’ve worked the ships systems to be able to create a counter wave to nullify theirs and prevent it from opening.”

“Could we not initiate a warp bubble or polarize the shields and get in its way between it and the portal? Are there any other engineering options we can do? Are you certain that it would be bad for that to open?” Bekele asked, his voice accented and deep.

El thought about that then shook her head. “It’s a wave. If our shields or warp bubble isn’t at the precise frequency modulation to nullify it it won’t matter. I don’t know what it would do if we were in the way. At least this way we’re out of the line of it.” She looked at the screen at the model of the ship. She hadn’t considered the hull polarizing but that was static and much less flexible than the warp wave she was thinking. “I really don’t know, Chief. It’s a best guess that it is of the enemy of the world below. None of them say it is theirs and one says it resembles things of their mythology about the Serpents.”

Bekele thought then nodded. “This is your realm, ma’am. I support you and see the time crunch. Let me know if you need anything more done.”

“I’ve got Walters and Morales at the disconnects so we’d not fly into warp. We’ll need to closely monitor three areas: warp power, relay and conduit power flow through the nacelles and importantly the warp field generator. If that goes then so does our hope to neutralize the wave. It can handle the power but with it flickering in modulation changes I’m worried it might overheat.” El was mentally ticking off the different elements.

Bekele shook his head and smiled. “Whatever happened to our little Ensign in the machine shop? Seems that someone is coming out of her shell. We’ll get everyone on it. I’ve some ideas about it overheating. You worry about that and engaging it if it comes to it.” He moved off bellowing orders.

“Thanks Chief,” El said quietly, then turned back to monitor things and double check her calculations.
El, Eng